Chapter 27 - More Quiet Moments

Mickey, Cleo and I were the last three to leave the theater. We exited the airlock to find our sister concubines waiting. I found myself showered with hugs and kisses.

"That was so much fun!" Tina squealed. "We have to do that again."

"It was definitely fun," Bethany said calmly. "And there is no question that James and the others liked watching it."

"Totally" Kitty said. "You realize that every citizen snuck in to watch it a second time."

"Every one?" I asked. "Who was in the command center?"

"Janet and Edith took over this time," Janice said.

"Who?" Mickey asked. "I don't recognize the names."

I sighed. "They don't come out much. They belonged to a man who died after we landed. But he wasn't a very good master. I'm glad to hear they were willing to help."

Bethany smiled. "They are becoming more outgoing. Most days they help out at the school. But they don't want to be separated."

"Could that happen?" Mickey asked. She had her arms around Michelle.

Bethany shook her head. "I don't know. James has always tried to find ways to keep concubines together if its clear they would be better off if they stay together, but we've only had a few times where we've had concubines looking for new masters."

"He'll do what he can," I whispered. "He always does."

Michelle and Mickey smiled after hearing this and ran off. I could see Cleo shaking her head as she hugged Bonnie. "They'll learn," she said.

"They weren't with us when we first landed," Bonnie said. "They haven't had the chance to see James when things are at their worst."

I shivered. "I hope they never have to see that. He's a true hero with how he handled that situation, but the fear we endured was truly horrific."

"That's why we perform shows and such," Janice said. "To reward our master for all he does."

"I thought we rewarded Tyson by sleeping with him," Bonnie replied.

"No," Cleo giggled. "We put on the lesbian sex shows that so turn him on to reward him. He's too good a lover to withhold sex. But he loves watching us make love to each other so we decided that we'd save those to reward him."

"Shall we go and reward our master then?" Bonnie asked. "He's been good the last couple of days."

Cleo grabbed Bonnie and kissed her. No more words were said as they dashed off down the corridor, heading towards Tyson's pod.

I felt arms wrap around me from behind. "I think they have the right idea," Kitty purred into my ear. "Shall we go home and see if James is there?"

Turning around, I gave Kitty a hug. Beside me I heard Tina and Brittany giggling. I turned to peek at them, and found them in a tight embrace. They pointedly ignored us as they held one another.

"Ignore them," Bethany said with a haughty sniff. "Let's go play with James without them."

As Bethany finished speaking, Kitty and Brittany grabbed my hands and started dragging me off. I took a tight grip on the sling containing Madoka, and stepped forward firmly. Kitty and Brittany smiled and reduced the amount of pulling, but continued to coax me forward. We were a merry band as we made our way through the passageways.

Sadly, when we arrived back at our home pod James was not there. Bethany suggested we feed our babies and then check on the rabbits. We had two eager assistants for changing the babies in Kitty and Brittany.

It appeared that my sister concubines had talked about where the babies should sleep. I found that there was now one large crib where we used to have four separate ones. When Madoka was finished with her meal and slumbering on my shoulder, Kitty lifted her up and set her down in the crib. As I watched, the others placed Joy, Astrid and Tolwin in the same crib before laying a couple of light blankets over them.

"We'll see how they sleep together," Bethany whispered. "Now since James is still not back, let's check on the rabbits."

We made our way to the door, keeping quiet to avoid waking the slumbering babies. Janice and Tina were ahead of the rest of us. They crossed the hallway and disappeared into the rabbit pod.

Kitty and Brittany both clearly wanted to run, but their growing pregnancies slowed them down. I offered Kitty some support as we tried to catch up to our sister concubines. To my right, Bethany was offering similar support to Brittany.

We arrived at the lounge room where we often relaxed with a bunny or two. Tina and Janice were going cage to cage, checking food and water levels for each rabbit. It was clear that they had to fill only a few water bottles. Kitty giggled as she sank down on the couch.

"Brittany and I were here earlier. We were giving a rabbit to the captain of Cancun. She wanted one that had a natural look," Kitty said as she took her arm from my shoulder.

Brittany found a spot next to Kitty and sat down as well. "We checked the food and water levels then. There shouldn't be many that need anything."

"We didn't have a formal presentation of the rabbit to Cancun?" Tina asked as she replaced a water bottle on a cage.

"Captain Gates was like Captain Walker. She didn't want to delay from getting her ship back into the fight," James' voice replied.

I whirled around to find James leaning against the doorway. His shoulders were slumped over. Fatigue made his face look aged and worn. Instinctively I took a step towards him, but he held up a hand.

"James!" Janice whined. "We're supposed to be here for you. You look terrible. Let us comfort you."

James shook his head. "Right now, I just need some rest. Captain Gates wanted to leave as quickly as possible, so I was up half the night helping Terrence and the rest of the tech crew in getting Cancun repaired."

"You were in bed with us," Tina contracted him.

"Only until you were all sleeping," James said. "After that I snuck out for a few hours."

Brittany slowly stood up. She marched up to James. Then without a word, she pulled her right hand back and slapped James in the cheek. The impact rang out in the room.

"Master, you can't keep cheating yourself of sleep. You need to rest," she fumed. "If you are falling over due to lack of sleep, you can't protect the colony or us."

James nodded slowly. "I know, but someone has to get everything done."

"And you need to trust everyone," Bethany replied. "Very well, change of plans. Kitty, Brittany - drag James to the bedroom and make sure he goes to sleep. If you have to, tie him down."

Kitty giggled as she got up and waddled over to join Brittany. James said nothing as they grabbed his arms and dragged him off. Both smiled back at us just before they vanished from view.

"We need to do more to support James," I said. "I've never seen him look so tired."

"Life is getting stressful for us all," Bethany said. "We're worrying about that scientist who is coming and what he might do."

"How long until he shows up?" Janice asked.

"I have no idea," Bethany said. "It could be one day, or fifty. It took us about seven weeks to arrive. He had to find a transport, organize the rest of his team and then make the trip. It's only been ten days since he said he's coming. We probably have around forty days."

"Are we ready?" Tina asked.

"There is nothing more we can do to set up pods. We have temporary housing for two hundred on the other side of the colony. We have a teleport station there, a new medical bay and a pod for the scientists. They don't need access to this side of the colony for anything."

"Let's make sure that two of us are with James all the time until the scientist arrives," I suggested. "We need to make sure he remembers to rest. Otherwise we'll have more problems in the future. I wonder if the other concubines are seeing the same thing."

"Pretty much," a new voice replied. We turned to find Marilyn standing in the doorway. "Sorry, but I heard the final question. I was coming to see if James looked as bad as the twins."

"If you mean, whipped out tired, but unwilling to admit it," Janice said. "Although he didn't fight too hard when we had Kitty and Brittany drag him to bed."

Marilyn smiled. "Claire and Whitney are the ones who dragged the twins off. Craig is going around to check on the others. I know that Yvette has been pushing herself too hard."

"The show was supposed to help them calm down and relax," I said.

"It probably will," Marilyn said. "The twins loved it. But since the scientist announced that he was coming they haven't had enough rest. And they really pushed themselves to get Cancun back into the fight."

"All we can do is be there for them." Bethany replied.

Marilyn nodded sadly. "Hopefully, the fact that the other area is ready will calm them down. I'm going to head back. Paula and Jillian are backing up Claire and Whitney, but they might need support if the twins decide someone has to be in the command post.

"We'll go sit on James," Bethany said. "We need to get them all to rest for a day."

Marilyn turned and walked away. I turned to help Tina and Janice finish checking all of the rabbits and then dashed back to our home pod. We found James asleep in bed. Kitty and Brittany were hugging him. My sister concubines and I quickly arranged ourselves around him. None of us were all that tired, but somehow the closeness helped all of us fall asleep.